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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Fairy Tale Catch Up: Bizarre Adaptations and Meryl Streep

Wow, guys. I have been in a black hole of putting up a play (come see The Pirate Laureate of Port Town if you are in the DC area!) We have finally opened, and now I can catch up on all the fairy tale news and ephemera that has been cropping up lately!

Hansel & Gretel Is the Platonic Form of “So Bad It’s Good”
Io9 thinks Hansel and Gretel: Witchhunters is silly and fun! "If you're looking for a serious reinterpretation of the Hansel and Gretel story, this movie isn't going to cut it. Even the "dark" bits where the siblings try to figure out why their father left them alone in the woods are plain ridiculous. But if you want to laugh your ass off and see some witchslapping, it's the perfect thing. Gemma Arterton as Gretel is particularly adept at chewing the scenery in the most awesome way possible. What I'm saying is that you should turn your brain off and mainline some fairytale this weekend." I have yet to see it, but I must admit, I love the idea that Hansel now has diabetes from the witch candy and needs insulin shots. Honestly, I will see it for the fairy tale ass-kicking alone!

10 of the Most Bizarre Fairy Tale Adaptations
Flavorwire gave us a facinating list of strange fairy tale adaptations: Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente (set in the Wild West, and written by an amazing writer!), I Was A Rat!, Philip Pullman (about Cinderella's rat footman who didn't get turned back at midnight), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival, Louise Murphy (Hansel and Gretel set in WWII), and more! Most of them seem pretty mainstream to avid fairy tale adaptation fans (like Anne Sexton's Transformations, and The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter), but as widely read as those are, yeah, they are weird.

Adorable Gender-Swapped Fairy Tale Princes by Yudi Chen
Flavorwire, yet again, gave us this beautiful series of gender-swapped fairy tale art: a long-bearded Rapunzel, a merman saving an Inuit princess from drowning, a beastly beauty, a king jealous of his stepson, and several others that display a fresh look at fairy tales with surprisingly unforced tenderness.

Meryl Streep is a huge Witch in the Into the Woods movie
WHAT? Amazing. She is simply in talks for the role, and this is by no means final, but Meryl Streep would play a fantastic witch in the Into the Woods movie. While I am still nervous about Disney doing my absolute favorite musical of all time, this seems to be a step in the right direction.